Crimson Memories
by SharkAttack719
Summary: One-shot. My name is Percy Jackson. I am a killer—a murderer. But I have my reasons for it. After all, what is war without death? What is murder without those crimson memories?/My name is Annabeth Chase. Rebellion's around the corner. A civil war's brewing. But the Bronze Swordsman approaches. I know him. After all, he started it all—those bloody memories. Route2 Assassin's Revenge


**This is a one shot that is pretty much a preview of the next story I will be writing. There are some things somewhat spoiled, but it isn't that bad. You get a quick look at this Percy's character and background. And you get a quick look at Annabeth's background and musing about Percy Jackson before finally he enters in the end.**

**Disclaimer: I wasn't involved the creation eight of the nine mortal characters mentioned in his one-shot (I think there are nine... let me know if there are more). Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Annabeth Chase, Thalia Grace, Nico di Angelo, Percy's mother (Sally), Percy's step-father (Paul), and Malcolm were not created by me. The surname Zenith was thought of by me (it has no meaning whatsoever... I just chose a non-common surname), and Elizabeth Edmonds is a fictional character made up by me who will play a supporting role in Percy's background.**

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><p><em>Slash!<em> Dead. _Slash!_ Dead. _Slash!_ Dead.

That was Percy Jackson's life.

He stared at the three broken, lifeless bodies that lay at his feet. Each of them bled from their necks, slowly drowning themselves in their blood. The crimson liquid stained the ground underneath. It seemed odd, especially because it was sunny that day and they were in a beautiful garden.

Percy Jackson sheathed Anaklusmos, the only friend he really had with him at all times. Because after all, being a killer had its downsides… It had more downsides than any other job.

It wasn't like he was afraid of seeing blood and dead bodies. After all, it was pretty much all he could remember. Even though it started when he was eight years old, blood was a large part of his life. Swords too.

He remembered that day when he was playing in the yard. When he peeked through the window, he saw those guards with their weapons drawn. He saw his mother and step-father backing away in fear. He saw them swing. He saw limbs fly. And most of all, he saw blood. Apparently the human body had five liters of blood. When the bad people left, and went inside, it was like a pool.

Percy shook his head and tried to forget about those crimson memories.

The half-blood glanced at the beautiful rose bushes. Such a dark scene for such a beautiful garden. Percy hoped the owner wouldn't mind.

Slowly, he walked out of the garden and put his hood back up.

_Slash!_ Dead. _Slash!_ Dead. _Slash!_ Kill.

Three more bodies.

Percy Jackson knew he was a murderer. People had no sympathy for murderers.

"Hey, Liz," he said to no one in particular. "Remember that book we read before our grand fight back in training? I loved that kid. He had an awesome group of friends but he went through a lot of pains. A lightning thief! I mean, who the hell would steal a lightning bolt. I kind of wish I had his life. He calls it rotten luck? That's rotten luck in a fantasy, maybe. Don't you agree?"

He was met with silence.

"I mean, look at me now. I kill without being fazed. That's not supposed to be a good thing, right? I wish I was smart and kinda wise like Annabeth, eh? Of course, you've never met Annabeth, so you wouldn't know. But, I mean, I guess people can dream and wish, just like we did back then. You became the top student in our class. We had dreams of being the best trio with Aaron, right? Us three assassins would be a formidable force. Then it all went downhill."

Percy laughed humourlessly and watched as more assailants came running at him.

"Aaron got sick. Then one day… he just exploded. Guts, puss, blood… everything. Wasn't it a horrible sight? We decided to fight for him. We took on a dangerous job. We decided to hunt after a high ranking officer. He ran an illegal trafficking business and was the head of a horrible gang called Deu5 M0rti5. It's an old western saying for "god of death," and originated before the year 1000. After the introduction of modern numbers from the East, a distant land said to have dried up and died, the gang replaced the letter S with the number five because five looks similar. The same was for the zero and the letter O. They did horrible things."

_Slash!_ Dead. _Slash!_ Kill. _Slash!_ Kill.

"We tried to stop them. But we were caught in our escape. And either we both died, or one of us would sacrifice ourselves for the other. You chose to sacrifice yourself. I remember that day like it was yesterday. We were wonderful friends, and I still can't believe you managed to take down twenty. But in the end… they cut you up like they were trying to destroy everything about you. They killed you, crushed your heart, ground your guts, burned your brain."

Percy shook his head and sighed.

"Of course, in the five years you've been gone, Deu5 M0rti5 is stronger than ever. But I'm working on it. Trust me, there are bigger issues that Deu5 M0rtis5 that need my attention, but don't think I've forgotten. Your face may be fading from my mind, but your name… I promise I will remember your name until I die, Elizabeth Edmonds."

A young teenage boy swung his sword at Percy.

The assassin sidestepped and sliced the kid's hand off. The boy screamed in pain and fell to his knees. Tears sprung in his eyes as he hugged his stump of a wrist close to his body.

Percy crouched down and forced the boy to look at him. "This is where the hero tries to convince the enemy that they're wrong," he said. "This is where I'm supposed to help you realize you're doing something terrible and preserve you so you can atone for your mistakes. But I'm not a hero."

"You're the Bronze Swordsman," growled the boy. "You're a monster."

"Perhaps," scowled Percy. "But I'll tell you this. There will never be peace between us. People fight all the time. It seems as though it's normal. I'll tell you what would probably happen if the world was always peaceful with this society. With medicine the way it is, and the birth rate, humans will eventually overpopulate the world. We'll destroy the land we live on if we keep having this much sex. Sometimes, death is necessary. So, kid, that's what I believe. And you're right. I am a monster. For believing something so immoral and terrible. But, you know what, life sucks. You learn that quickly. And sometimes it's like a game. It's like a competition. You play the game without cheating from the outside, because, well, you can't really cheat in life. But what most people don't realize is that you can play the game however you like as long as it is within the game. Maybe you break rules. But you do _anything_ you can to win."

The half-blood then ran the boy through with Anaklusmos and left him for dead.

_Slash!_ Kill. _Slash!_ Kill. _Slash!_ Kill.

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><p><em>Blood.<em>

Annabeth Chase couldn't get that day out of her head. Why did they have to be publicly executed?

Of course, it had to be Percy Jackson that saved her from falling apart completely. She tried to shake the image of the Bronze Swordsman out of her head. He was a murderer. A killer. He was completely different from the boy she'd met when she was nine. He was eight and recently became an orphan. Back then, he seemed lively and playful. Of course, he wanted revenge on whoever had killed his parents, but when he wasn't thinking about that he was great to be around.

But when she turned twelve, the government knew that Annabeth still had living family in another state, so she didn't see Percy for eight years.

And he had changed so much.

He was colder and darker. Clearly, something had happened to him.

After everything, he was a traitor. He was charged for treason when he saved her father. Of course, she and her father were let go because of Luke's overruling, but she knew it was only because she and Luke were close. That wasn't the reason why Annabeth hated him, though. It was because he was so determined on killing Luke. And there was no reasoning behind it.

The civil war was brewing, and the nation had split. The de-facto leaders of each faction were President Luke Castellan of the Unity of Olympia and President Malcolm Zenith of the Conglomerate States of Olympia.

Percy probably picked that name because he was a Seaweed Brain. As a son of the magician Poseidon, he generally affiliated things with water. And Annabeth thought it was kind of a funny, cute nickname for him when they were younger. But now, it was meant as an insult. Conglomerates were usually businesses, not states.

Still, Annabeth wondered why there was a civil war in the first place. Obviously, four of the six states were treated poorly by the government so they didn't like Luke's presidency. Still, they should have realized that it was hard balancing a budget. But then there was this propaganda that Luke was raising a half-blood army to murder other half-bloods. These half-bloods were supposed to be the best of the best.

But then why would her half-brother, Malcolm, and her enemy, Percy, two very strong demigods, be on the opposite side. True, there was a half-blood force under Luke's wing consisting of her, Thalia Grace, a daughter of Zeus, and Nico di Angelo, a son of Hades.

In her last meeting with Percy Jackson, he told her that Luke was after Thalia's shield and Nico's helmet, though he didn't explain why. It was probably due to the fact that she was part of a trap to capture Percy alive. He killed the ambushers like they were nothing. The Kynigos was wiped out in a matter of two minutes until Annabeth was rendered immobile and her commander, Zoë Nightshade, was locked in battle with the son of Poseidon.

Percy had once mentioned to her that they had some sort of shared moment in the past, and Percy seemed to be hesitating to attack Zoë. The older woman fought relentlessly, seemingly okay with killing him. They were shouting about things to do with the past when Zoë did something that made Percy snap. He killed her in cold blood.

All Annabeth could remember was the blood in the grove. And cruelly, Percy left her alive as she slowly drifted into unconsciousness with all the dismembered bodies around her. War was bloody and messy. But so was attacking the best swordsman graduate in the past three hundred years, even with bows and arrows. The hunters were no match for him.

_Blood_.

Two months later, Annabeth was polishing her knife as Thalia came through the doors with a grim expression on her face.

"What happened?" asked the curious daughter of Athena.

"Twenty dead," said the daughter of Zeus. "All linked to the criminal gang Deu5 M0rti5. The killer… most likely Percy Jackson."

"Why?"

"Does it look like I know?"

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know, but the bodies were found pretty close to here. I think he might be onto our hideout. If he manages to get here, I don't want to imagine what would happen to you."

"Yeah, but you won't let that happen, will you, Thalia?"

The daughter of Zeus sighed. "I thought I knew him. Well enough, at least. But no. Percy Jackson is making himself an enemy of Luke. And as much as I want to be friends with Jackson, attacking the government is not right. I just don't understand why he's attacking a gang instead of us. Does he think that we're affiliated with them or something?"

"No," Annabeth disagreed. "It's not that. I think it has something to do with the past. Something happened to him."

"What do you think it is?"

"Well, I mean, he's been attacking high ranking officials in the Olympian government, but it's almost as if he's looking for something." Annabeth frowned and put a finger to her chin. "Percy's a blunt person. There's no way that he could be planning some sort of trick up his sleeve. He's after the government because he wants to kill somebody within it. Maybe… maybe he's looking to overthrow the Olympian government because he disagrees with this whole half-blood army thing."

Thalia frowned. "Why would he be bothered by a half-blood army?"

"Haven't you heard the rumors?" Annabeth asked.

"What rumors?"

Annabeth gave her an incredulous look. "I can't believe you're serious about that. Well, there are rumors that Luke is planning to do a purge or a mass genocide of half-bloods. But to do that, he needs to control the most powerful half-bloods in the country."

"That doesn't make sense, though. Percy's a powerful half-blood. Why doesn't Luke have control over him?"

"That's what I'm trying to get at. There's something we're missing here. Something big."

Then the doors swung open and a lifeless, bloodied body was kicked in. A man wearing a dark black cloak, black trousers, and an ocean blue shirt entered the room. His bronze sword was covered in blood, but the man didn't seem fazed at all. With a smirk, he sheathed his weapon and brought out four throwing daggers, two in each hand.

"Yes, Anna," he said. "There's something you're missing. Something big."

_Blood._

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><p><strong>So let me know what you think of this preview! Also, if you're wondering, the Son of Time is going to be wrapping up by late October. I hope I have the next chapter, or the chapter after that, ready for October 7 to commemorate the Blood of Olympus! I can't wait! Let me know your predictions for BoO!<strong>

**My predictions: I don't care. I just hope that, although it is directed toward middle-aged kids (like 9-12 ish maybe i dunno), I want people to die. It just doesn't seem right to have them all survive, even if it is the finale of the finale. I guess it's because I'm older now that I feel like death is just a part of life. It's horrible, it can be traumatic, but in a war, death is almost certain... unless you're Percy freaking Jackson or Annabeth damn Chase.**

**Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,  
>SharkAttack719<strong>


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